Last week, I got sick… really sick.  I’m not just talking summer cold – it felt more like a full-blown intensive flu.  It knocked me on my butt for four straight days.  Getting sick in the summer really sinks.  The AC makes the whole situation much worse, but living without it makes me totally grumpy and uncomfortable.  It’s hard to drink hot tea and soup when the air temperature outside is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  So, after four days of sleeping on the couch with pillows propped up – unable to breathe from my nose – coughing up crap previously lodged in my throat, I was anxious to get out and about this weekend.

My cousin Michele has asked me a few times now to make her the shrimp curry dish I learned at the CIA Southeast Asian cooking class I took a few months ago – and I thought – “What a great way to clear out my sinuses”

So, I woke up this morning and went to the gym again (after five days), met a former colleague and his wife (and two adorable twins!) for a walk through the Warwick Farmer’s market and a light lunch.  Then I picked up fresh seafood and headed home to make a seafood curry with coconut jasmine rice.

Seafood Curry

Ingredients:
•    2 tablespoons peanut oil
•    2 cloves garlic
•    1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
•    2 lime leaves
•    Zest of ½ a lime
•    5 birds eye chilies
•    1 onion, sliced
•    1 can yellow curry paste
•    ½ teaspoon fish sauce
•    1 cup sliced mushrooms
•    1cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
•    1 tablespoon basil, minced
•    1 lb jumbo shrimp
•    ½ lb bay scallops
•    1 lb cockles (or littleneck clams)
•    4-5 14oz cans of coconut milk
 






The curry paste, fish sauce, and the coconut milk are not always ingredients people can easily find.  While I didn't have a photo to share with you of the fish sauce, I wanted to share images of the curry paste ( fish sauce and curry paste are specialty items found in Asian shops) and the coconut milk — most supermarkets have it.







Method:
•    In a hot saucepan, add peanut oil and sauté the onion, garlic, ginger, chilies and lime leaves
•    Add curry paste and fish sauce, stirring rapidly
•    Add coconut milk and bring to a slow boil, then reduce to a simmer and add the mushrooms — simmer for about
      20-30 min.
•    In a separate pan, sauté the shrimp and scallops until they just barely turn pink – then remove to a separate
     dish
•    Steam the clams/cockles and remove to separate dish
•    Add the tomatoes, the basil and the shellfish – then remove from heat and allow dish to carryover cook for
     about 5-10 min.
 





Coconut Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:
•    1 cup jasmine rice
•    1 14oz can coconut milk
•    1 cup water

Method:
•    In a rice cooker, combine all ingredients – turn on  J

Michele loved this curry!  She took home a large container-full – along with the ½ a loaf of flax seed bread that I bought at the Farmers Market.  I loved this curry – because not only did it taste good – but it cleared out anything and everything I had stuffed up in my sinuses, raised my body temperature, and finally kicked out the very last lingering legs of my illness.  





Coconut Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:
•    1 cup jasmine rice
•    1 14oz can coconut milk
•    1 cup water

Method:
•    In a rice cooker, combine all ingredients – turn on  J

Michele loved this curry!  She took home a large container-full – along with the ½ a loaf of flax seed bread that I bought at the Farmers Market.  I loved this curry – because not only did it taste good – but it cleared out anything and everything I had stuffed up in my sinuses, raised my body temperature, and finally kicked out the very last lingering legs of my illness.